By Howard L. Weiner. 309 pp. New York, Crown Publishers, 2004. $24.95. ISBN 0-609-60900-9.
Scientists, medical researchers, and academic physicians sharea fundamental shortcoming: we consistently fail to translateand describe our professional world — its struggles, itssuccesses, and even its basic workings — to the generalpublic. In science, this flaw, lamentably, affects the peoplewho direct funding policies, and in medicine it denies knowledgeto patients who hope for improvements in and possible curesfor their condition. As science rapidly grows more complex andtechnical, the gap widens between scientific realities and publicperceptions of how science works. Indeed, the daily televiseddiet of medical breakthroughs fails to convey the complexities. . . [Full Text of this Article]
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